A Christmas Carol
by Blanche
Summary: It's Christmas but Lindsey is not feeling all that jolly. Based on Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol.


**A Christmas Carol – Angel Style**

_Just a little idea that came to me last week when reading Dickens' A Christmas Carol and re-watching Dead End. Wouldn't be cool to put Lindsey in the shoes of Ebenezer Scrooge? Well, here it goes! _

_Spoilers: First two seasons of Angel, just to be sure. Darla is gone and let's just pretend that Lindsey got his hand back, but didn't leave as he did in Dead End. _

_Disclaimer: I, sad as it may be, own nothing. Not the characters of Angel and not A Christmas Carol. Although I wouldn't mind if I did. With English not being my first language, I'm hoping that you bear with me through possible grammatical errors etc. Thanks! On with the story! _

**Part one**

A stupid Christmas song was on the lips of his secretary when she popped her head in to wish him "Merry Christmas" in a way too cheerful tone. Lindsey scowled and returned her season greeting with a glare. He felt like a proper Ebenezer Scrooge, the only thing missing would be "Bah humbug!" from his lips. People had been running around the office for weeks now singing stupid songs and decorating every corner and it was driving him crazy. He had grown tired of it all even before it had begun. Just the notion of what was to come had made him want to slash his wrists. Well, maybe he would not have resorted to quite as drastic measures, but it was pretty damn close up there.

He didn't understand what the fuss was all about. It's not like there was any hope for snow for Christmas, not in Los Angeles. He marveled over how the Christmas spirit yet seemed as strong as ever. As a child he could not have imagined a Christmas without snow. It was an essential ingredient of the holiday season. Ever since moving to LA, it seemed that his own private Christmas spirit had been driven away more and more and had probably now taken residence in some remote location.

Just yesterday he had even heard Lilah humming "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" when she moved past him in the hall. He found it pretty strange that a company like Wolfram and Hart could be as cherry and festive. Didn't Christmas go against their very beliefs? The season of hope and whatever else…in perfect match with the company from hell.

Getting his things together, he knew that there would be no way of getting any more work done that day. He glanced at the clock and mentally cursed himself for not going home earlier. It was going to be a close call now and he knew it. Practically throwing down the papers he had been working on in his briefcase, he knew there was no time to lose. If he wanted to escape mentally unharmed from the annual eggnog and carol-singing get-together he would have to leave right away.

"Leaving so soon, Lindsey" a voice interrupted his way towards the elevators. He turned to face Lilah, wearing a red dress complete with a santa cap and everything.

"Yeah…I've got some errands to run," he lied. "So much to do and so little time you know?" And he was on the move again before she had the chance to reply.

Safe inside the elevator he leaned against the wall and sighed in relief. _That was pretty damn close_, he told himself. _You just never learn, Lindsey, do you?_ Last year he had lost track of time and before he knew people was dragging him out from his office, putting a glass of eggnog in his hand and he had been stuck in that carol-singing herd of employees for two whole hours until he was allowed to leave. It was quite a nightmare really. He promised himself then to be sure to leave earlier the next year, but no, he had almost allowed himself to be captured once again.

It was a great big mockery when you thought about it. Not one single person in that room had the right to sing the big savior's praise, they were all guilty as hell, and yet this time of year everyone seemed to think otherwise. Well, he was not going to pretend to be something he was not. He had made his choice when he came to work for Wolfram & Hart and then last year when going back to them again after his little stroll on the good side, and he was going to stand by his choice. All he wanted to do now was go home and completely forget what time of year it was.

It was the day before Christmas and it seemed that everyone in LA was trying to get that last piece of shopping done. People were crowding the streets in search of that perfect gift. It was a long time ago he had been one of them. Not since the first year in LA had he bought gifts for Christmas. Then it had been presents for his sisters back home, but the longer he stayed in LA the more had they all drifted apart. He hadn't been in contact with his family for years now, just the annual check sent to them around Christmas by his secretary. It did no good dwelling on things, wishing they were different. So he didn't. It was just the way things were.

Suddenly something caught his eye. A flash of blonde hair in the crowd that he could have sworn was… His foot went down on the brake in a desperate attempt to not let her out of his sight. But she was already gone and behind him people were honking their horns for him to move. He shook his head with disbelief. _It couldn't have been…could it? _Looking out of his car window he saw that the sun was shining, not a cloud in sight and he knew that he had been imagining things. He dismissed the event and wrote it up to all those long hours at work finally beginning to take its toll on his mind. Although he could not quite let it go. The rest of the ride to his apartment his thoughts went back to the flash of blonde and he had a nagging suspicion that something was going to happen.

Closing the door to his apartment behind him he went straight to the bottle of whiskey he kept in the living room and poured himself a class. The glass was empty in a second and he immediately poured another. Christmas was really getting to him this year, he thought as he sank down in the chair. It had been a rough year after all. His small crisis of faith and then Darla. Who was he kidding? A rough year? It had been an outright terrible year. At least if your name was Lindsey MacDonald. And now it was Christmas, season of hope and joy. _Hope and joy my ass! _It was just another weekend, like all the rest. Sighing he leaned his back and closed his eyes. He couldn't wait for this weekend to be over.

When he opened his eyes again it was dark all around him.? He realized he must have fallen asleep in the chair and his neck was not feeling that happy about it. Something had woken him up. A sound? It took a moment before his eyes got used to the darkness surrounding him. He felt kind of strange, like someone or something was in the room with him. There it was again. The sound. Metal against metal, like chains. He let his eyes roam over the room trying to establish from where the sound had come and it was then he saw a flash of white moving towards him. As it drew closer his eyes widened.

"Darla?" he whispered.


End file.
